When the National
Trust originally classified Victoria Street, Kings Cross they described
it as the 'Montmartre of Sydney'. The epithet is appropriate for those
who see the street as Victorian architecture with a residential Who's
Who that has included most of Australia's leading writers and artists.

The residents have
seen it differently. To them the atmosphere of the street is more
important than its fabric. While the 'community' concept is gaining
currency with the resident action movement, an actual community has
existed in Victoria Street for over fifty years.

One resident who
lived there for ten years described the Victoria Street of the late
fifties as full of pensioners, single parent families, Kings Cross
identities and young people in transit. While the rest of the Cross
fell victim to R and R and toy koala bears, Victoria Street remained
unchanged. 'It was the same until ten months ago. I started off as an
illegal tenant in No. 67 and stayed. I learned who the permanent
tenants were. We knew when a tenant moved in and wondered who it was.
We saw kids doing midnight flits with a suitcase in one hand and a cat
in the other.'

Unlike most other
inner city suburbs Victoria Street was neither 'restored' nor
demolished. It remained as a low-rent residential area.

By the end of 1972,
Frank Theeman, a would-be developer, had bought all the houses in the
northern end of the street. This was the section where even the
bathroom windows gave a picture post-card view of the city and harbour.

In April 1973 all
but twelve of the four hundred tenants were evicted in one week. Some
of them had lived there for over forty years, but most were unfamiliar
with their legal rights. When Theeman's agents told them the buildings
were condemned and shortly to be demolished, they moved, either to the
outer western suburbs or to smaller and dearer rooms in the inner city.

The NSW Builders
Labourers' Federation imposed a Green Ran, preventing either demolition
or construction. In the following weeks, however, vandalism and a
series of fires made many of the houses uninhabitable.

In June the
National Trust approved a revised plan presented by Theeman which
incorporated the facades of the more 'historic’ buildings in
a 'low high-rise' development.

Since the Victoria
Street Action Group was also concerned with preserving low-rent
housing, the Trust's decision was unacceptable. However, this decision
meant the loss of 'respectable' support for the group and confusion to
the BLF whose own respectability was largely dependent on their
assertion that bans 'gave teeth' to the National Trust. The Action
Group decided squatting would draw public attention to the need for
low-income housing in the inner city, and also prevent further damage
to the buildings.

The squatting
commenced on June 10, 1973. By the end of 1973, after six months of
squatting, there were a hundred residents in the street, including some
former tenants.

In July, Theeman
took legal action against one squatter, John Cox; charging him with
trespass. He was convicted and appealed. As long as the Cox case was
sub judice the squatters enjoyed some security. As Cox said: 'A summons
is as good as a 5A lease.'

In December, with
unprecedented speed, Cox's final appeal was quashed. The squatters
prepared for police action.

With the first
rumours of eviction, barricading began, using materials which
sympathetic rank and file builders' labourers had scrounged from city
building sites. Depression resulting from uncertainty set in. The
barricading continued for three weeks, and as time discredited
particular rumours, many became convinced that nothing would happen.

Still, some people
moved out. Most squatters shifted those possessions they wanted to keep.

Squatters organised
a phone tree designed to get as many people as possible onto the street
as soon as there was any action. Flags were made in green (for bans),
red and black. A siren was installed, and residents patrolled the
street to activate both siren and phone tree when necessary.

One of Theeman's
associates, Joe Meisner, self-styled world karate champion, was
recruiting men to evict the squatters. On Sunday, December 29, one of
those approached informed a member of the action group that Meisner had
organised several men for the job, and that the police would close off
the street while they broke into the houses. The barricading continued
with more urgency.

On Wednesday,
January 2, a policeman informed his brother, a BL, that hundreds of
police were being sent to Victoria Street the following morning. That
night another thirty people stayed with the fifty remaining squatters.

At 6.20 am on
Thursday morning, a nearby resident informed them that there were over
two hundred police and several paddy wagons massing outside Darlmghurst
police station. The last of the scaffolding was put into place, and the
core numbers on the phone tree were alerted.

Police arrived at
both ends of the street with Meisner's recruits, described in Theeman's
press handout as 'controllers'. The ‘controllers' appearance
was large and very beery. They sported sledge hammers, axes, and
crow-bars. They shook hands with the police and both groups moved
towards the houses.

At No. 57 they took
five minutes to open an unlocked gate with a crow-bar. As they broke
into the house one resident climbed through the roof into the more
securely barricaded No. 59. The controllers took thirty minutes to axe
their way into this house. The eleven residents had retired to a back
room where they drank beer and discarded all defence plans.

Once inside the
building, the controllers ignored the squatters and commenced tearing
open doors off their hinges, smashing fittings, plumbing and wiring.
When theresidents refused to leave they were arrested by police.

Squatters were
barricaded in thirteen buildings, but the controllers broke into six
additional buildings which Theeman had barricaded six months earlier to
keep out squatters.

In No. 115 the
squatters headed for the roof of the three-storey building, and two
climbed to the top of the chimneys.

The controllers
broke into another house through the roof, and there cut a hole through
to the flat below. The couple living there turned a hose on them, and
the controllers retaliated with caustic soda.

By 8.30 am, forty
squatters were in jail and hundreds of people were demonstrating in the
street. Two squatters, Keith Mullins and Con Papadatos, were still on
the chimneys of No. 115.

The controllers
attempted to demolish the chimneys from underneath Keith and had to be
stopped by police. The police rescue squad attempted to remove the two
but they were still there when the squatters were released from jail at
4.30 pm.

An elderly man not
previously involved approached some of the squatters and gave them five
dollars to 'buy everyone a drink when its over.'

By 5.30 pm the
crowd of sympathizers concentrated on the footpath opposite No. 115.
Facing them on the other footpath were over 100 police and thirty
controllers.

At nightfall the
police trained a spotlight on the demonstrators. This effectively
prevented them from watching Keith and Con, but it provided the two men
with an excellent view of their supporters, who then staged an
impromptu concert. The crowd sang appropriate numbers such as "Chim
Chiminee" and improvised new verses for old songs.

Some people played
guitars while others banged saucepans collected from the belongings
piled in the street. When people were too hoarse to sing they went on
to the road and danced.

Shortly after, BLF
secretary, Joe Owens, was arrested for obstruction, bringing the total
arrests outside the houses to fourteen.

At 1.00 pm, after
seventeen hours on the chimneys, Keith and Con announced that they were
coming down.

A meeting of
builders' labourers and squatters had earlier planned a mass rally at
Kings Cross on Monday January 7, to discuss the rights of low-income
earners to live in the inner city. After Keith and Con were arrested,
the action group decided to picket the street, at least until the time
of the rally, as two members of the group, both legal tenants, remained
in the houses.

At dawn on Friday,
January 4, Elvis Kipman, a former squatter, climbed onto a chimney on
No. 113. The controllers attempted to shift him by lighting a fire
below. Elvis shoved his pillows and blankets down the chimney and
smoked the men out of the building. The police climbed onto the roof,
handcuffed him and proceeded to demolish the chimney around him.

Later that day a
fifty-year old woman in a neatly lettered smock joined the picketers.
It read: 'Sydney law/ One for the Rich. One for the Poor.'